Billie Sucher Blog

About That Résumé You Whipped Up

Strolling around the University of Houston campus a few days ago, I came upon a sign attached to a utility pole. As you can see from the photo I took, the advertisement states:

Graduating?

Need a Career?

Have a Résumé?

Better hope it's better than that paper you wrote.

At the bottom of the ad appeared a phone number and website to visit should a passer-by be so included.

Old school advertising to a new crop of 2011 graduates.

Has your résumé landed you your first job out of college or an upcoming summer internship? If not, one of the best graduation gifts you can give yourself (or get from Uncle Ben or Grandma Bessie) is a top-notch professionally written résumé, produced by a top-notch résumé writing pro or career management expert who knows how to build an attention-getting masterpiece.

That said, let's say you already have a résumé you're sending out and think that there's 'no need' to have a pro help you. If that's the case, then here's a quick test you can apply to your existing résumé. Scoring consists of a quick 'yes' or 'no' response to the six questions below:

RELEVANCE: Is your résumé relevant without question to your target goal?

EVIDENCE: Is your résumé an evidence-based document that provides proof that you are a strong contender for the job to which you aspire?

STORY: Is your résumé a story of your past (history) or an enticing, success-driven showpiece of your past, present and future?

UNIQUE: Is your résumé uniquely branded to capture the essence of you in 10 seconds or less?

MESSAGE: Is your résumé a well-crafted document that delivers a compelling, action-driven, meaningful marketing message?

EXCELLENCE: Is your existing résumé a powerful reflection of excellence in representing you and your brand to a key-decision maker?

If you answered 'no' to any of these six questions, well then, I suspect you already know what to do next. In any event, congratulations on earning your college degree and may you enjoy continued success and achievement in the future!

About That Kitchen Sink and Your Professional Résumé

In recent conversation with a client about her professional résumé, she commented that her existing document contained 'everything under the kitchen sink' and that she was 'absolutely overwhelmed' by it.

Here's an activity you can do at home right now. Go to your kitchen sink. Open the cupboard doors and take a peek inside. What do you see? A few things? Multiple products? Items you haven't used in 10 years or more? Random stuff that you have no idea of its purpose or value? Or perhaps you're perplexed by the thing that doesn't even belong there...what's up with that? you say to yourself.

Kitchen sinks and professional résumés are in some ways quite similar:  

1. You notice that way too much stuff is there - it's cluttered; oh dear!

2. It's hard to see the thing of relevance to your immediate need because it's far too difficult to find.

3. Everything is blended, jumbled and crammed together in a limited space. Definitely not engaging!

4. Not much stands out and it's challenging to readily discern a distinct brand.

5. It's a bit of a mess and may be too overwhelming to view, so it's just easier to close the doors and move on to...next résumé, please!

Takeaway for my client: she cleaned house on her old, outdated résumé and created an entirely new look to support her current job search goal. Mission accomplished!

Homework Exercise: Take a look at your existing résumé, job seekers. Kitchen sink variety or a distinct, unique, branded and compelling professional presentation?

Template? Original? What Say You, Job Hunter?

Again this week, I received a voice message that went something like this:

Hey Billie, I was at the bookstore the other day and I saw your résumé work in So and So book and I was wondering...could you send me a template of your résumé from page 124? If you could, that would be awesome! Thanks!

What is a "template" anyway? According to the dictionary, one definition of the word is:

anything that determines or serves as a pattern; a model.

Are you a template? For your sake in today's highly competitive job search market, I surely hope not! I hope you are now and forevermore a job seeker who is an:

ORIGINAL!

According to the dictionary, a few of the noun definitions of the word "original" include:

~ an original work, writing, or the like, as opposed to any copy of imitation...

~ the person or thing represented by a picture, description, etc...

~ a person whose ways of thinking or acting are original...

Résumé template? Résumé original?

Which one best represents you and your brand?

 

FAQ From #Jobseekers: How Do You Ever Know What to Say on Twitter?

Over on Twitter last week, I posted this tweet:

FAQ from #jobseekers: "How do you ever know what to say on Twitter?" #jobhunt #outplacement #careers #Twitter #in

While I don't have a specific answer, I do have a general idea that may help you, if you are a brand new contributor to Twitter, or you are thinking about signing up for Twitter. Perhaps a few of these ideas (tweets) stated below will help you get started and keep going as U tweet away from this day 4ward!

Think about a subject of interest that you want linked with your name and your brand.

What do you know about that you could freely (passionately/interestingly) share w/others?

In as few words as possible, write a thought to create one 'practice' tweet.

Tweak your thought (tweet) until it's about 120 of the 140-character limit.

Try 'trial tweets' of 25 or so to build confidence before you click on Tweet.

Engage readers w/ strong content, ltd. self-promotion and a +sounding attitude. (Add hashtags if U like: #jobhunt)

Reply with thanks & appreciation when you get retweets, followers, mentions.

That said, I recall my very first tweet, some 5,000 tweets ago and I think it went something like this...

"This is my very first tweet on Twitter."

So #jobseekers, how about giving it a try...what will be your very first #tweet on #Twitter?

P.S. Feel free to Follow Me on Twitter: @billiesucher